Iraqi Intelligence denies its relationship with the assassination of Engineer and Soleimani

Iraqi intelligence denied on Tuesday the accusations that its chief, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, was involved in the assassination of Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, deputy head of the Popular Mobilization Organization in Iraq, and the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani.

The denial came in response to statements by a senior official in the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, in which he accused Al-Kazemi of being involved in the killing of Engineer and Soleimani in a US air strike near Baghdad airport on January 3.

"These accusations are invalid, and they represent a clear threat to civil peace, and they harm the head of the agency and the reputation of the security services," the Iraqi intelligence service said in a statement.

The statement stressed that the functions of the apparatus are centered around "serving the homeland and the people, and are not subject to political whims and temperaments", and stressed that the apparatus reserves its right to "legal prosecution for all who use freedom of opinion to promote false accusations that harm Iraq and the reputation and duties of the apparatus."

The security official in the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, Abu Ali al-Askari, said in a tweet on Monday that some were discussing al-Kazimi's candidacy for the post of prime minister, who is accused of helping the United States to carry out the assassination of Soleimani and the engineer.

Al-Askari considered Al-Kazimi's candidacy for prime minister a declaration of war on the Iraqi people, and would burn the rest of the country's security.

Al-Kazemi is one of the names being circulated in the country to head the next government, since the resignation of the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi in early December, under the pressure of unprecedented protests against the ruling political class that erupted last October.

And the Iraqi "Hezbollah" battalions face accusations from Washington of being behind the missile attacks that have targeted the American embassy in Baghdad for months, and Iraqi military bases hosting American soldiers throughout the country.